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Old strings and saddle adjustment question
Hi everybody. Wondering if any of you has ever experienced this.
First of all, it's a nylon string guitar. I decided to lower the saddle a bit, so the action got more comfortable. I lowered it a tad below 1mm. When I put it back on, I noticed two things: 1) while the action was lower, the strings felt stiffer, as if the tension was higher (it wasn't, same strings I previously had on it) 2) the wound strings sounded "kind of new", not like coming out of the pack but much brighter than before loosing them up to put the new saddle So why would that be? Maybe the tension thing is just my impression, lower action wouldn't result in higher tension, quite the opposite, right? |
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#3
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I must say, this is probably one factor which falsely gives people the perception about saddle and bridge pin material making a difference in tone, when its just the string being strung up again. As for the seemingly increase tension, you sort of increased the length of the string. Think of a long right angle triangle- The nut making one of the corners, X, and the 2 points the string touched the saddle, A and B. (drawing this may help you) The distance from A to B is the amount of saddle you removed, X to A is the string length BEFORE you adjusted the saddle, and X to B is the string length AFTER saddle adjustment. IF you see what I mean, because you lowered the saddle, the string length got longer, and thus more tension. We are talking about 1mm here, so Im not sure if its even enough to feel that tension increase, but this is what I think. Lowering the nut slot will help alleviate this if you feel its annoying, but be cautious about string buzz! |
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Even I don't agree with him.
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Okay, thanks for the inputs! I guess the tension might be just my impression in the end.
Nut is just right, I wouldn't dare to mess with it and get buzzing. Thanks! Good point about the materials and tone. I definitely think there's something to it. Just loosing and restringing changes the tone, at least for a while, like when cleaning the strings. I'd add that, after being frustrated trying to follow other people's measurements and fussing about 0.1mm... Nowadays I follow them as guidelines, but nothing like adjusting action by feel, IMO. I know it's a hassle to restring constantly as adjusting nut, saddle and etc... But it's worth it. |
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Tags |
action, saddle, strings, tension |
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